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60 TRUE STORIES OF OLDpany there. They had entered the woods, ahead of us, however.Before tle close of the war all the railroads except the Houstonand Texas Central and the Galveston, Houston and Hendersonhad gone out of commission and had ceased to run atall. In some way these two roads were kept in such conditionthat they could be used, but that was all. Using them was nota safe thing by any means. They crept along so slowly thatwhile wrecks were so frequent as to attract no attention, itwas a rare thing for any one to get killed or even hurt.If full justice were done the name of Mr. Bremond would beperpetuated by the Houston and Texas Central road. It is truethere is one of the principal towns on the line named after him.It is true he received loyal support and assistance from W. R.Baker, M. M. Rice, William Van Alstyne, William J. Hutchins,Cornelius Ennis and others, but theirs was money help and soongave out. The real credit for building the road belongs to PaulBremond, for he did what others could or would not do, pulledoff his coat and went in the trenches and, figuratively, on thefiring line of railroad construction in Texas.I do not know what the reason for doing so was, but in thosedays the' builders of locomotives always put immense smokestackson them. The smokestacks were funnel-shape and severalfeet in circumference at the top. The locomotives burnedwood and every few miles there were big stacks of cordwoodpiled alongside the track.There was no such thing as spark-arresters and every timethe fireman put fresh wood in the box the passengers got thefull benefit of the sparks, cinders and smoke. It beat travelingby stage, however, and as the people knew nothing of oilburners,spark-arresters and Pullman cars, everybody was content.The old-time fireman earned every dollar that was comingto him, for he had to keep busy all the time. It was not child'splay to have to keep steam up with only wood for fuel. Thentoo, it took more steam to keep an engine going at that time,for the engineer was using his whistle 10 times as often as heuses it now.There were no fences along the right of way and as therewere thousands of cattle on the prairies and woods where theroad ran, the track was generally filled with them every fewmiles. As soon as the trains would get out of the city limits,the whistle would begin tooting and this was kept up almostwithout cessation. Of course, a great many cattle were killedand this led to bitter warfare between the cattlemen and therailroads.